A review by lawbooks600
Sunshine on Vinegar Street by Karen Comer

emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Representation: Asian characters
Score: Seven out of ten.

I've read from Karen Comer before when I read and enjoyed Grace Notes so I hoped I would also enjoy her second book, Sunshine on Vinegar Street. It was difficult to get this one as no library had it in physical form so I settled with an eBook edition from a library instead. The blurb seemed intriguing, but when I closed the final page I found it flawed yet enjoyable (not as much as Grace Notes.)

It starts with Freya having to move to Abbotsford in Victoria from another location in the opening pages and the situation looks bleak to her as everything is new to Freya. She has to live in an apartment even though she's scared of lifts and has to be part of a new basketball team, which felt similar to Hoops and New Kid in a way. I liked some parts of Sunshine on Vinegar Street but I can't say the same for other parts. The pacing is easy to follow for a book under 300 pages since it never feels too overwhelming, but the plot can get disjointed sometimes with all the different themes and subplots like coming-of-age, basketball, mental health, fear and, most prominently, IVF. It turns out Freya is a donor-conceived person and not born traditionally like most people. The plot tries to do too much and focusing on one theme would improve the reading experience, but at least I liked the poetry style including text messages, onomatopoeia usage and sizing up the words for emphasis, but it's mostly spaced-out prose. 

More poetry devices would've made leaps and bounds in terms of poetry. I'm not in the target audience, but I'm sure other younger people could relate to Sunshine on Vinegar Street. I could root for the characters since they were likable but I couldn't connect or relate with them. Freya fears lifts for most of the narrative except for the end. Is that childhood PTSD? If so, why didn't she receive any mental help for that and the times when she struggled to adjust to her new life? She had to face these issues alone, but supportive adults could've made the creation more realistic, fortunately, the conclusion is a high note where Freya gets used to everything.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings